Athens, being the consummate college town, is full of consummate college bars: they play the same six trite, overplayed pop/rap songs on heavy rotation (often so loud you have to shout to be heard by the hottie sitting next to you [well, there's always the chance s/he's just ignoring you]), they have many giant screens playing the game du jour and they have a miserable selection of beer on tap.
Yes, the vasty majority of college bars “play it safe” by choosing beers they know will sell well. Popular beer is like popular music: it is watered down to appeal to people with shitty taste. These beers include your typical “Lite” fare, such as Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light (I don’t care if it’s pink, that beer I won’t drink), as well as a few mainstays in every American bar, Guinness, Budweiser and whatever Sam Adams seasonal is in season at the moment. Which is all a shame, because beer tastes best the fresher it is, and the freshest beer comes from kegs.
Alec Guinness wants you to drink Guinness draught.
But all is not lost. There are some bars in town with truly excellent selections of craft beer on tap. But how do bar managers and owners choose which brews to pour for their patrons? I chose to pose this question to three bars in Athens in an exploration of how bars choose better brews.
Broney’s Alumni Grill
Broney’s is one of the newer bars on Court Street, owned by Brian Wharton, a former manager at Courtside Pizza and Sports Bar. By day it is a typical bar and grill serving standard bar fare, but at night it turns into one of Athens’ most popular night spots, with any numbers of games on big screen TVs and occasional djs. It has two full-service bars, on of which also serves patrons outside on the patio, and 17 beers on tap. I spoke with Wharton, who ultimately has the final say on which brews the bar serves.
Brian Wharton, owner of Broney's Alumni Grill
“The number one determination is availability,” Whaton said, “if they distribute in Ohio. Number two would have to be if I think it would sell, but that one kind of fluctuates.”
The bar stocks a lot of IPAs, which Wharton attributes to the preponderance of IPAs being put out by craft brewers right now. Wharton said they also stock a lot of ales, because, aside from staples like Bud Light and Blue Moon, those seem to be the best sellers. The bar also has a good number of stouts on tap.
As far as determining which beers to keep on tap, Wharton said it’s a matter of what’s being talked about right now. He considers word of mouth; what the distributors are saying, as well as what is being written about in the three beer magazines he reads: All About Beer, Draft and Beer Magazine.
They keep six on strong rotation, their most popular beers, such as Bud Light, Blue Moon and Great Lakes Christmas Ale, but the rest of them they change up every few months.
For a full list of all the beer Broney’s keeps on tap, see the bottom of this post.
Casa Cantina
Casa Nueva: restaurant, cantina and bodega.
Casa Nueva is Athens’ only worker-owned restaurant and cantina, a model that echoes the county’s progressive nature. In addition to serving Mexican food made with a variety of locally grown organic produce, Casa also includes a full-service bar with dozens of bottled craft beer. The bar only has eight brews on tap, but there is a tradition behind them.
Bar Manager Greg Lyle with his taps.
“Starting since before I was bar manager,” Lyle said, “we’ve had this Ohio tap situation where everything on tap comes from Ohio. We try to get as local as we can.”
The beers on tap at Casa come from the Thirsty Dog Brewery in Dayton, Great Lakes Brewery in Cleveland, Buckeye Brewing Co. in Lakewood, Marietta Brewing Company in Marietta and Athens’ own Jackie O’s.
Lyle, bar manager at Casa for the last 10 years, has kept up the tradition of stocking only Ohio beers on tap, but he also tries to accommodate for different tastes. Despite having five breweries represented in the taps, there is only one lager, one porter, one IPA, one christmas ale, one autumn ale, one wheat beer and two stouts.
The choice of which beers are on tap is made based on whether the brewery has a reliable distribution network, and whether they are offering something that the bar already doesn’t have, Lyle said. Because of the limited tap space, if Casa already has a popular IPA, they aren’t likely to stock another one.
For a full list of the beers Casa Nueva keeps on tap, see the bottom of the post.
Jackie O’s
Jackie O's pub and brewery.
Jackie O’s is Athens’ only local brewery. An Irish Pub at heart, you can find many Irish stouts and traditional pub fare, as well as pizza made from the spent grain from the brewing process. Jackie O’s is one of the only bars in Athens where you won’t be overwhelmed by the music, and they don’t play the same pop music that you hear at most other bars.
Art Oestrike, owner of Jackie O's.
“It’s important to celebrate craft brewing,” Oestrike said of the beer selection at Jackie O’s. “It’s the backbone of this business.”
Jackie O’s recently opened a new addition to the bar, so the bar now consists of two rooms. The main room is “as out of the box as possible,” Oestrike said. The 16 beers they have on tap are constantly changing, sometimes even daily, so hit as many different “taste-belts” or palates as possible.
In addition to the five different beers that are brewed in house, the main room serves a number of different guest drafts from craft brewers all over the country.
The new room has a more consistent lineup, and is being used to introduce people to a micro-situation, Oestrike said. It is stocked with easy drinking micro brews to appeal to a large population of college students.
For a full list of the beers Jackie O’s keeps on tap, see the bottom of the post.
Slideshow: Bars and their taps
Bars and beers: what each bar has on tap
Broney’s
- Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat
- Hoegaarden
- Left Hand Sawtooth Ale
- Lagunitas Brown Shugga
- Great Lakes Christmas Ale
- Brooklyn IPA
- Brekenridge Christmas Ale
- Brekenridge Vanilla Porter
- Samuel Adams Winter Lager
- Bud Light
- Stella Artois
- Blue Moon
- Coors Light
- Leffe Blonde
- Smithwicks
- Guinness
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
Casa Nueva
- Thirsty Dog Siberian Night
- Jackie O’s Barking Pumpkin
- Buckeye Brewing Old Mammoth Stout
- Great Lakes Christmas Ale
- Great Lakes Dotrmunder Gold
- Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald
- Marietta Raspberry Wheat
- Marietta IPA
Jackie O’s
- Razz Wheat
- Firefly Amber
- Mystic Mama IPA
- Barking Pumpkin
- Chunga’s Old Bruin
- Lagunita’s Brown Shugga
- Avery Dugana
- Dogfish Head Festina Peche
- Green Flash Trippel
- Celebration Ale
- Bell’s Third Coast Ale
- Bell’s Double Cream Stout
- Bell’s Expedition Stout
- La Chouffe
- New Holland Fire Circle
- Weyerbacher Pumpkin
